You can add one new name to the list of available power forward free agents, one that will quickly move to the top of the board for a lot of teams.

The Atlanta Hawks waived Jordan Williams, the second-year player out of Maryland. Williams had been with the Nets last season but was traded to the Hawks as part of the Joe Johnson deal.

Williams started out last season slowly (and not in great shape) but played his way into shape and due to injuries got more run as the season wore on. And he showed potential in those minutes — he didn’t score a lot (4.7 per game and he has no shooting range to speak of) but rebounded pretty well on both ends of the floor and played within himself. He’s no lock for a long NBA career, but you can see potential in him.

For teams looking for another big, most would rather have a young player with potential than a veteran on the down side of their career. It’s why he will be off the market pretty quickly.

The Hawks made this move after re-signing their own promising young big man Ivan Johnson.

The Knicks are still looking to add one more backup power forward to the roster, and a lot of Knicks fans look out at the rather barren landscape of available free agents and see Kenyon Martin as the best option.

Kenyon Martin is the player so many continue to link to the Knicks, but K-Mart has remained steadfast in not wanting to accept a veteran’s minimum. A few teams have Martin on their radar, including the Celtics. While K-Mart provides more toughness and size to the team, the Knicks might not want to get locked in with a volatile player.

Other Knicks options at the four are Lou Amundson, Shawne Williams and the just-released Jordan Williams, Hahn suggests. If none of those options thrill Knicks fans, well, they shouldn’t. But that is who is out there.

The Nets seem to be thinking about having an interesting team to open the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn with next season, the years beyond that be damned.

And Dwight Howard be damned. He has said Brooklyn is the place he wants to be but when this trade for Joe Johnson goes through they would be out of the running to trade for Howard or get him as a free agent next summer. That scream you just heard was not Howard injuring his back again, it was him realizing his plans have blown up and left him looking the fool. With few options.

Despite earlier reports this deal is going forward regardless of whether or not Deron Williams decides to commit to Brooklyn or not.

The deal would send Johnson — an All-Star but with maybe the worst contract in the NBA — from the Atlanta to the Nets for Jordan Farmar, Anthony Morrow, DeShawn Stevenson, Jordan Williams, Johan Petro, plus the Rockets lottery protected first round pick for next draft.

The Nets just inked Gerald Wallace to a four-year, $40 million deal. If Deron Williams signs and the Nets retain Brook Lopez (a restricted free agent), that makes an interesting team in Brooklyn. They will put points on the board, be pretty good, depending on how the fill out the rest of the roster, but they have gone from having $38 million in cap space to $9 million. The team gets maybe 50 wins, a three to six seed in the East, catch a break and they can get to the second round of the playoffs.

But that’s it. They will not be better than the Heat or Bulls. They are not contenders. We can debate where they would rank among the Pacers, Celtics and Knicks, but the fact is they are a second tier team in the East that would take on Johnson’s anchor of a contract — four years and $89 million left for a player who is good now but no longer on the front end of his career.

And with all that money they took on Brooklyn is fully out of the Dwight Howard sweepstakes. They don’t have a trade that the Magic want to make now, and the Magic aren’t taking on Joe Johnson’s deal (the Nets can’t just instantly flipped him anyway). They don’t have the money to sign him next summer. Which leaves Howard screwed — he has a public relations disaster on his hands and can’t land where he wants. His list will open up to more teams fast and could include Dallas, the Lakers and… Atlanta? For Al Horford? We shall see.

Why did the Nets do it? They had to have something they could count on heading into Brooklyn, they could not open the building with a rebuilding team. They are now a playoff team. They had to take that over the risk of Howard because of the move into a new market.

For the Hawks — new GM Danny Ferry has the orders to clean house and change the fortunes of this team. He is tearing it down to rebuild and that is the right thing to do. Plus he still has Al Horford and Jeff Teague, and they can keep or shop Josh Smith to see what the market will offer up. Well done.

The Orlando Magic play the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis Saturday. Sunday the New York Giants play the New England Patriots in Indy in Super Bowl XLVI (which you can watch streaming here on NBCSports.com, if I can throw in a plug). The Orlando Magic didn’t book their hotel long in advance due to the lockout. Now, basically every hotel room in the city is booked and the Magic are scrambling.

Rumor is the Knicks want to get J.R. Smith when the Chinese season ends. I bet they would. But they are over the salary cap and are very limited in what they can offer, so unless Smith isn’t concerned about the money it’s a tough sell.

Vince Carter will be out Wednesday against the Clippers with what is described as a sprained foot (suffered on that final play against the Lakers, a missed three to tie the game). Expect him to miss a couple more.